Chapter 6

Boys Don't Cry

By Lady Aishiteru

Chapter 6
A Rose Never Smelled So Sweet

            Serena ran as fast as she could towards the nearest bridge.  Once there, she leaned over the railing and took a long, hard look at the sure to be frigid waters.  It was over a hundred-foot drop, which was more than enough to destroy almost anything that crashed on the water's surface on impact.  That which was not instantly torn apart soon sunk underneath the waves, never to be heard from again.

 

            Reaching into her pocket, she took out the Luna pen, so she could look at it one more time.   Her face was stony; she had long since exhausted her supply of tears.  She was glad that it was still early in the morning; that way, there would be no witnesses.  Sighing, she drew her arm over her head, stepped back…

            "Serena, NO!  Don't do it!" cried a voice that came from ankle level. 

            "Luna!" Serena squealed.  She hoisted the hapless cat over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.  "I've missed you so much!"  She buried her head in her cat's fur, not really caring that she was getting black cat hairs all over her clothes.

            Luna hopped off of her shoulders and proceeded to yell at Serena from the ground. "Where in the universe have you been?  Everyone's been worried sick about you." 

            "Come on, Luna, you're looking at me like I was going to jump," Serena exclaimed, laughing nervously.

            "You weren't?" she asked, blinking.

            "Of course not."

            "Then what, in heaven's name, were you doing standing over the Tokyo Bay Bridge at six o'clock in the morning?"

            "I was going to throw this damned thing over.  It's brought me nothing but trouble."

            "Seree-NA!  You can't do that!"

            "Watch me," Serena said defiantly.  She drew back her arm, and this time, the pen sailed across the railing, then plummeted towards the forbidding waters below.

            "I can't BELIEVE you just did that!  What has gotten into you lately?"

            "A little of this, a little of that," Serena said, smiling mysteriously.

            Luna blinked again, which was very rare for a cat, especially Luna.  The scouts were right.  Serena had changed, a lot.  She saw the look in her charge's eyes, a combination of steely determination and desperation.  Her shoulders stooped a little, as if she had been carrying a lot of weight around.  "Well, you'd better come home," Luna said.

            Despite herself, Serena smiled wistfully.  She knew she'd have a lot of explaining to do, especially to her parents, but she'd rather face the music at home than wander the streets by herself.  Home: that word held a lot of significance to her.  She even missed her miserable, rotten, demon spawn of a younger brother known as Sammy.    "Okay.  Let's go."

            Serena and Luna ran as fast as they could, the fear building up in Serena's mind, increasing her already rapid pulse.  What on earth would she say to her parents?  How was she going to explain this one?  She couldn't tell them the truth, as much as she wanted to, because that would mean revealing herself as Sailor Moon.  She briefly considered taking up smoking, but decided against it.  Just because she was miserable in mind didn't mean her body had to join in.

            She knocked on the door, timidly at first.  A violet haired woman answered the door. "S-serena?  Is it really you?"

            She looked at her mom, and something cracked inside.  Her mother had large, dark bags under her watery eyes, probably from many sleepless nights.   There were many new gray hairs that had sprouted around her temples, joined by premature wrinkles.  "Yeah, Mom.  It's me."

            Overcome with her emotions, Mrs. Ilene Tsukino grabbed her daughter in a fierce bear hug.   "M-my daughter!  You're finally home."  Serena's body shook as her mother's sobs grew louder, but she didn't mind.  She was crying, too.

            "Hold on, honey.  I'll get your father," said Ilene. 

            "O-okay," said Serena.  Knowing her father's strict ways, she prayed that her inevitable death would be swift and painless.

            "Serena!  Ilene, am I dreaming?"

            This went on for ages, as one by one, the Tsukino clan descended down the stairs to greet their wayward family member.  Even Sammy was crying tears of joy, in between threats that Serena would never breathe a word of this to anyone.  Rini was strangely absent, and Serena worried that the little spore had followed in her footsteps…or worse…

~~*~*~*~*~*~~

            Mina was having the most wonderful dream.  She was dancing a slow waltz with a tall, well built man with long, luxurious platinum locks.  Her head rested on the smooth fabric covering his muscular chest, and he smelled like spices and leather.  She gazed into his green eyes and smiled.  The man opened his mouth and uttered the words Mina had longed to hear –

            "Meow!"

            "What?  You're not making sense, my love.  'Meow?'  I mean, what is that?"

            Malachite repeated himself, this time louder.  "Meowwwww!"

            "Grrr!  Make sense, dammit!" she yelled, shaking her love's shoulders. 

            Suddenly, Malachite's beautiful, white hair morphed into soft, white fur, and his head looked exactly like –

            "ARTE-MIS!" Mina screamed at her cat.  Her arms erupted from under her covers and grabbed his torso. "What the heck is wrong with you?"

            Artemis shook his head, his sensitive feline ears ringing from the impact.  "Mina, let me go!  It's important!"

            "It's Sunday!  The one day I get to sleep IN!  What in God's name could be so important that you woke me up from a GREAT dream at 6:30 in the frickin' morning!"

            "Aphaxysad," said Artemis.

            "SPEAK UP!" she said, shaking Artemis.

            "Se-Re-Na I-S Ba-ack!" he said, his voice distorted from the quick, violent jerks.

            "She's back?!  Geez, Artemis, why didn't you tell me?" she said, quickly releasing him.

            In response, Artemis merely shook his head and smoothed out his ruffled fur.  "Luna just told me."

            "What, do you have telepathy or something?"

            "No, just the Internet."

            At this, Mina's face hit the ground.  "Sheesh, Artemis!  Next thing I know, you'll learn to use the can opener!  Then we'll all be in serious trouble!"

            Artemis simply turned around and curled up into a ball.  "The things I have to put up with around here," he mumbled into his fur as Mina scrambled around the room, frantically searching for the ever-elusive matching sock.

~~*~*~*~*~*~~

            At six forty-five, Rini was hiding under her covers.  It had been forty-five minutes, and the loud noises hadn't gone away.  There was pounding on the stairs, shrill, frantic voices and lots of yelling. "If I just stay here, the Dark Moon will never find me," she mumbled to Luna P.  Using the best logic a five year old could come up with on such short notice, she reasoned that if she couldn't see them, then they couldn't see her. 

            It was about as useful as an ostrich sticking her head under the sand.  Inquisitive, blue eyes peered into her frightened, maroon orbs.  So Rini did the only thing she could do in a situation like this.  She bawled her eyes out.  Her breaths came and went as ragged, frightened sobs.

            "Shhh…it's okay, sweetie.  It's only me," said a soothing voice, one Rini hadn't heard in ages.  "D-arien?"

            Darien nodded, and Rini scurried out from under the covers.  "I missed you!" she squealed.

            "I missed you too, punkin.  Listen, have you seen Serena?"  At this, Rini started crying again.  "I'm sorry.  I just saw her at my apartment, and I wanted to know if she had come back here."

            "N-no, Darien.  I haven't s-seen her," she sniffled into his shirt.

            Someone opened the door, and the knob crashed loudly on the opposite wall.  Both of them jumped.

            Rini rubbed her eyes in amazement.  "Serena?"

            "Rini!" shrieked Serena. 

            Rini grabbed the older girl in a bear hug, incapacitating Serena from her knees down.  "It's okay.  I'm here, and I'll never leave again."

            Rini drew back her head.  "Promise?"

            "Promise."

            "Why'd you have to go, anyways?" asked Rini.  "Do you hate me that much?"

            Serena's body stiffened.  Deep down, she knew someone would ask her that question eventually; but she didn't anticipate answering it right then.  She lifted Rini off the ground and hugged her tight.  "I could never, ever hate you. It's a long story, and I'll tell you when you're older." 

            "Okay."

            Darien cleared his throat.  "Um…I guess I'll leave you two alone now."

            "But you just said you wanted to see Serena," Rini pointed out.

            "Did I say that?  Ha ha, are you sure you're not hearing things?" Darien said, running his hands through his hair nervously.

            "Darien!" Rini said, turning around slightly to glare at him. 

            Serena deposited the girl on the floor.  "It's okay, honey.  We'll only be a moment."

            "You sure?" asked Rini, eyeing Serena suspiciously.

            Serena nodded. 

            "Okay, but you had BETTER be here when I get back!" With that, Rini trounced out the door.

            "She sure does have a lot of spirit," said Darien.

            "Yeah," mused Serena.  "Kind of makes you wonder where she got it from.  Anyways, you wanted to see me?" she asked, her tone edging on hopeful.

            "Yeah.  Um, about that poem…"

            "Don't worry.  I won't show it to anyone," Serena said, making a motion of zipping her lips.

            "It's not that, Serena.  It's about what it said, about us."

            "I thought there was no 'us,'" Serena said, with heavy emphasis on the last word.

            "I thought so, too.  You know, it's crazy, this thing between us.  No matter what I do, I can't escape you."

Serena opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, but Darien placed his hand over it, cutting the flow of whatever apologies would come out. 

"You never gave up on me, Serena.  Not even when it would cost you your life."  He paused, stepping back and taking in a shaky breath.  "I've…never known that kind of love."  Serena nodded, knowing what that admission had cost him.  "You don't know how much I wanted to hold you in my arms, to kiss away your tears and take away your sadness.  But I can't.  Even being this close to you, it's dangerous."

            Serena nodded, understanding completely.   "Before I became Sean…I thought, well, why can't we face this together?  I thought you'd changed back into that creep I loved to throw things at.  I think I understand you a little better now, though.  This has been hard on both of us.  I won't ask anything more of you. Whenever you're ready, I'll be here, waiting.  I won't run away again, because I could never get rid of you, either."  

            Darien nodded, drawing something out of his sleeve.  He could spend eternity with this woman and never know her depths.  "Goodbye, Serena," he said.  He pivoted on his heel and left.

            Serena smiled, deeply inhaling her new rose.  A flower had never smelled as sweet as that one. 

Lady A: Hn…that didn't come out as I thought it would.  I will leave you all with the two words I know I have been dying to type *grins evilly*

~*~THE END~*~